This is a collection of thirty portraits of individuals involved in all aspects of wine production and consumption, superbly written by one of the most respected writers on wine in the world today. It is by no means restricted to proprietors and producers, but includes wine merchants and traders, wine writers, and a sommelier. People are attracted to wine for all sorts of reasons. Some inherit properties and perpetuate the skills and traditions handed down to them, others start from scratch creating wine estates or transforming existing properties in the wish to improve diversity; the grand and the modest, the rich and the struggling, the standard bearers of tradition and bold innovators, old men and young women. Every person has been interviewed, and as far as possible ideas are presented in the worlds of the individual. The parade of personalities is deliberately international. But even so it has proved impossible in a book of this limited size to include individuals from every single wine-producing region of significance. The central focus of the book remains European, and rightly so, but voices are also heard from as far away as Oregon and New Zealand. Accompanying these wonderful essays are photographs of chateaux, cellars and bottles and enchanting line drawings of the protagonists.